The Germanic Tribes

During the third and fourth centuries, there were large migrations of land-hungry Germans
southward and westward onto the Rhine-Danube Frontier. The basic Germanic political structure
was the tribe, headed by a chief who was elected for his ability as a war leader. It was these
tribes that resulted in Rome's losing control of the great frontier. The Roman and Germanic
cultures greatly clashed. The Germanic religion was polytheistic, their society was a warrior
aristocracy, and finally their societal structure was a mobile one. By 370 A.D., the tribe had
become nations led by warrior kings. It was at this time that the Huns swept out of central Asia
westward until they encountered two Germanic nations of Visigoths and Ostrogoths. This was the
spark of many years of invasions and warfare that provoked the downfall of the Roman-
controlled frontier. The following information describes some of the Germanic tribes such as
Franks, Ostrogoths, Visigoths, Burgundians, Angles, Saxons, Ostrogoths, Vandals and Lombards.

The Huns

Originating in central Asia, the Huns were a Mongolian tribe who invaded southeastern
Europe c. AD 370 and managed to build a remarkable empire. In their nomadic endeavors, the
Huns crossed paths with the Ostrogoths and Visigoths and were able to maintain their
dominance, especially at the Danubian frontier of the Roman empire.

This clan of Asiatic warriors invaded Gaul in 451, which became the unofficial center of
their civilization. Although the Huns were seemingly primitive pastoralists, they did maintain a
distinct, multifaceted society. The frontier along the Danube became the site for trade, where the
Huns obtained silk and wine through annual fairs. Slaves captured in battle helped to define this
civilization by bolstering the economy, whether it be through the strong output of their menial
labor or through the slave sales market in Rome. Hunnic art added an interesting dimension to
the culture as well. Art was expressed in the forms of bronze cauldrons and vessels. Hunnic
women donned the latest in necklaces and bracelets, the jewels being anything from coral,
carnelian, mother-of-pearl, quartz, pyrite, lapis and even Egyptian paste, which may have been
obtained through their nomadic travels.

It is unquestionable, however, that although the Huns made noteworthy achievements in

both the arts and economics, their unparalleled warring strategies remain most remembered.
Armed with their signature bow and arrow, the Huns fought the Germans under King Ruglia,
whose successors (Atilla and Bleda) ruled together. However, Atilla’s aggressive foreign policies
(including having issued an ultimatum to the Eastern Roman empire demanding monetary
tribute) led to a series of wars that had mixed results.

About 445, Atilla assassinated his brother and took upon himself the challenge of
suppressing the Roman advances. A series of attacks were made by both parties. While the Huns
were not exactly successful, the expeditions did introduce wealth (through the acquisition of
gold), which consequently brought structure to a previously ambiguous governmental system.
Now, Atilla adopted autocratic methods and even declared when his people would enter war and
remain in peace. Also, the leader had an administration whom he chose (comparable to a
political cabinet) and commenced a system of collecting food and tribute from his subjects.

Atilla continued his military undertakings in Gaul (present day France) but was finally
defeated at the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains by concerted Roman and Visigothic forces. Yet
surprisingly, that was his only defeat. In 452 the tribe sacked several Italian cities; however, they
left due to the lack of resources needed to feed his people. They were even routed in 455 by a
combination of tribes (including the Gepidae, Ostrogoths, Heruli, and others) in a great battle on
the river Nedao and were ultimately ostracized by the Eastern Roman empire. From that point
on, the Huns remained voiceless in the changing face of history.

The Ostrogoths

The Ostrogoths are the eastern division of the Goths that had split into western and
eastern kingdoms. The Ostrogoth King Ermanarich created a huge kingdom that was attacked
and soon overrun by the Huns from central Asia in about 370. They were then put into the army
of the victors, and the Ostrogoths did not regain their freedom until 453, with the death of Attila.
Until this time they had settled in Pannonia. From there they migrated into Italy.
 When they went into Italy they wanted to adopt Roman culture and to be accepted and
equals with the Romans. They helped protect the civilized world against other barbarians.
Although the Ostrogoths were a barbarian people, they fought against them. The Ostrogoths
became Arian Christians, which caused conflict between them and orthodox Roman Catholics.

The most important Ostrogoth leader was Theodoric the Great, who reigned from AD 493
to 526. In 488 the Ostrogoths were commissioned by the Emperor Zeno to attack Odoacer, a
German usuper, in Italy. Odoacer surrendered in 493 on the condition that he was allowed to
retain his half of the kingdom but he was killed by Theodoric, who then became sole ruler of
Italy. Under Theodoric the old Roman law, taxation, and administrative systems were continued
unbroken. There was also a great deal of peace and prosperity. He attempted to secure good
diplomatic relations with his German neighbors by offering his daughters and sons to their kings
in marriage.

After Theodoric's reign, the Ostrogothic kingdom continued to exist until the middle of the
sixth century, when it was overthrown by Emperor Justinian. Eighteen years of hard fighting and
devastation of the countryside were needed before the last Ostrogothic army was destroyed.
Then the Ostrogothic state and people disappeared from history.

The Visigoths

The Visigoths, also known as the Goths, were a barbaric tribe. Living on the delta of the
Danube River, their kingdom was inherited by Alaric I. They were pushed west by attacks from
the Huns.

In 382, Theodosius, Roman ruler at the time, under a treaty made the Visigoths the first
independent barbarian nation within the Roman Empire. Visigoths allied with Rome in 394, and
Alaric I led the Visigoths in the Roman army against the Huns. Theodosius, before his death, spilt
the empire between his sons Honorius and Acradius. The empire was now permanently split into
eastern and western empires. In 395, when Theodosius died, the Visigoths relinquished their
allegiance with Rome.

In 401, Alaric decided to invade Italy, but was defeated by the Roman general Flavius
Stilicho, and the Visigoths were forced to withdraw from Italy. Alaric's huge loss did not prevent
him from attacking again, as he did. The second invasion also ended in defeat, but this time
Alaric constrained the Senate at Rome to pay a large endowment to the Visigoths. An anti-
barbarian party took over Rome after Stilicho's death and ordered that wives and children of the
tribesmen who served in the Roman army be killed. The tribal soldiers then returned to serve
under Alaric, increasing his military strength. Even though Alaric was eager for peace, the
western emperor Honorius, refused to recognize Alaric's needs for supplies and land. This led
Alaric to attack Rome once more and the Senate ended up paying an endowment to Alaric and
granted Alaric the right to go and negotiate with Honorius. Honorius, close-minded, paid no
attention to what Alaric wanted and refused to set up a meeting for the negotiations to take
place. In 409, Alaric surrounded Rome. Honorius lifted his blockade and appointed Attalus as
western emperor. Alaric soon deposed Attalus and besieged Rome for the third time. Allies that
were in the city opened the gates for Alaric and for three days his troops occupied Rome. While
in Rome Alaric and his troops took everything with them and burned things that were in their
way. Soon after this Alaric died and the Visigoths moved northward towards Spain. After Alaric's
death the Visigoths roamed and were vulnerable to attacks.

The Franks

The Franks, as they are known today, were a Germanic tribe who eventually became the
French. They came to inhabit the former wealthy Roman provinces of Gaul and became the most
powerful of the Germanic tribes. It was the Franks who created the strongest and most stable
barbarian kingdom in the days after the Western Roman Empire had collapsed.

The name "Frank" is closely related to the word that means "fierce" or "free" in the
Frankish language. From a linguistic point of view, the most direct descendants of the Franks are
the Dutch and the Flemish-speakers of Belgium. The early Franks were a loose confederation of
tribes who shared a similar culture. Tribal loyalty came before loyalty to the confederation and
because of this the confederation was extremely weak.
 The concept of the Franks as a people was first realized under the reign of the Merovingian
dynasty. The Merovingians took their name from the chief of the tribe, Merovech (Merowen), who
was one of the leaders (reguli) of the Salian Franks. Merovich and his successor, Childeric, (d.
481), extended Frankish dominion as far south as the Somme River.

Childeric was the father of Clovis (481-511), the first ruler of the Merovingian dynasty.
Clovis was a ruthless warrior and he and his immediate successors destroyed all resistance
within their empire. He drove the Gallic Visigoths into Spain and absorbed much of the
Burgundian kingdom as well as much of the territory of the Alemanni into his kingdom. In
addition, Clovis also converted to Orthodox Christianity, an act which made him king of the
Franks in the eyes of the pope.

After AD 700, the Merovingians gradually lost control of the Frankish kingdom to the
Carolingians, a family of ambitious landowners who served as court advisors to the Merovingians.
Frankish troops secured the fate of Christian Europe in the Battle of Tours, in which the Muslim
forces were defeated by the Carolingian general Charles Martel (Charles the Hammer).

Pepin the Short, son of Charles Martel, became king with the votes of the Frankish nobles
and papal approval. In return for this ecclesiastic recognition, Pepin crushed the Lombards of
Italy and gave the newly conquered lands to the pope. These territories later became the Papal
states and this agreement is known as the Donation of Pepin.

However, the most notable of all the Frankish rulers was Charlemagne (Charles the Great).
He built up a capable bureaucracy, a fair judicial system, and revived the arts. he was also the
ruler of a vast domain that was gained by his military exploits. Charlemagne followed up his
victories in these areas by converting most of the people to Christianity and he was justly
honored for his military and religious activities. On Christmas day of the year AD 800, Pope Leo
III (795-816) crowned Charlemagne "Charles Augustus, Emperor of the Romans," and made him
the first Holy Roman Emperor.

The end of the Carolingian era began in 843 when Charlemagne's grandsons divided the
empire into three parts, and thus hastened the splintering of Western Europe into smaller
kingdoms.

The Burgundians

The Burgundians, East German tribesmen, were great allies of Rome. In the Battle of
Chalons (451 AD), they fought on the side of Aetius, a Roman war hero, the Visigoths, and other
Germanic peoples against Attila and the Huns. So much the Roman allies, the Burgundian kings
were given the title of Master of the Soldiers. Burgundians sought their place in history through
military alliances. The rise of the Franks under Clovis committed the Burgundians as allies to the
Franks in which they helped Clovis to defeat the Visigoths in 507 AD

It was twice that the Burgundians faced destruction, the second time being fatal. The Huns
attacked in 456 AD; with the aid of Aetus, the Burgundians narrowly escaped destruction. The
few survivors fled to the territory surrounding Lake Geneva in Switzerland. Later, after repeated
invasions, they moved to the valley of the Rhine River where they occupied eastern Gaul. Lyon
became the capital of the Burgundian Kingdom. They gave their name to the region that still
remains today as the region Burgundy. But later in 554 AD, the Burgundians were attacked by
the Franks, their former allies, and their kingdom was annexed.

The greatest of the Burgundian kings was Gundobad, who reigned from 473 to 517 AD, his
greatest contribution being Burgundian law. In 484, he formulated a law code for his Burgundian
subjects, the Lex Gundobada, or Lex Burgundionum. Years later, he sponsored a more significant
law code, the Lex Romana Burgundinum, this time benefit of his Roman subjects, "[w]hich
applied also to cases in which both Romans and Burgundians were involved," (Jones, p.22).
Finally, the Burgundians, like many other Germanic tribesmen, were Arian Christians. However,
in 493 AD, Clotilda, the Burgundian princess, married Clovis, and having embraced the Roman
Rite herself, helped convert Clovis to Roman Christianity.

The Vandals
 The period between 406 and 572 saw the Germanic barbarians complete their migrations
into the West. It is undoubtedly one of history's most hectic and confusing periods of time. As the
Roman world collapsed, many tribes reached a peak of brief glory, others were destroyed in a
series of little-known wars. To the Germanic people, this was considered to be the “heroic age”
which was a time of adventure and great displays of power.

The Vandals were a Germanic tribe of Jutland (now in Denmark), who migrated to the
valley of the Odra (Oder) River about the 5th century BC. During the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD
they settled along the Danube River. This is approximately when they began their conquests
over Rome. Today's usage of the word "vandal" reflects the dread and hostility the tribe
precipitated in other people, especially the Romans, by their looting and pillaging of the many
villages they conquered.

In the 420s, much of Spain was the playground of the ferocious Vandal tribes, who had
arrived there in 409 after crossing the Rhine in 406. The Vandals, under pressure from the local
Romans and the expanding Visigoths, decided to move on to the rich provinces of Roman North
Africa; they elected as their king a crippled son of a slave, Gaiseric. This proud, ruthless king was
a gifted conspirator and a genius of political maneuver. For 50 years, Gaiseric’s web of
entangling treaties foiled the plans of Roman diplomats and Germanic kings, always to the
Vandals’ advantage.

In 429, Gaiseric ferried all of his people across the Strait of Gibraltar and led them east
along the African coast. One by one, the gleaming Roman cities with their abundant granaries
fell to the hungry Vandals. The people of Hippo were rallied to the defense of their town by their
bishop, Augustine. St. Augustine died in his city during the 14-month-long Vandal siege. In the
end, Hippo, too, passed into the barbarian hands. The Vandal conquest of North Africa took a
decade to complete. Cleaning up operations were still going on when Gaiseric turned restlessly
to a new project: he built a swift fleet and launched himself on a lucrative career of piracy in the
Mediterranean Sea.

The Vandals carved out big estates and made their homes among the Romans. They left
administrative chores to Roman bureaucrats. But the relations of the Arian Vandals with the
Catholic inhabitants were never better than strained. Gaiseric barely managed to hold
animosities in check, and under his successors prejudice erupted into violence. The Vandals
persecuted the Roman majority. They martyred scores of Catholic and provided medieval
hagiographers with many grim tales for their lives of the saints.

Gratuitous cruelty was only one symptom of the Vandals’ swift degeneration after
Gaiseric’s reign. The warriors, seduced by the luxuries that their rich land supplied, grew weak,
corrupt, and disorganized. They succumbed quickly when their kingdom was invaded by an army
from the Eastern Roman Empire in 533. Soon afterward, the Vandals disappeared as a distinct
people. They melted in with the highly mixed local population and tried to continue to live non-
distinct lives. They left little behind but lingering bitterness, anger, and a new desire for justice.

The Lombards

The Lombards, or Langobards, were a Germanic tribe that began in southern Sweden and
worked their way down into Italy. They became Italians in the process and gave their name to
the northern Italian region of Lombardia. This movement from Sweden to Italy was gradual: it
took four centuries.

When the Lombards --whose original name, Langobards, refers to their long beards--
descended on Italy in the 6th century, they had to deal with several earlier waves of German
invaders (particularly the Goths) as well as the resurgent Eastern Romans (who were a power in
Italy into the 8th century). However, twenty years after the last of the Eastern Romans were
expelled from Italy (751 AD.), the Lombards were stomped by the better organized Franks. This
was, technically, the end of the Lombard kingdom in Italy. But unlike earlier Germans, they had
not maintained the ancient Roman forms of government during their domination of the
Peninsula, nor did the Lombard duchies which survived the Frankish onslaught in the South. The
political landscape in Italy was given a German overlay by the Lombards, where eventually they
spoke Italian and became Catholic. Basically, Italy became another Germanic area.
 Perhaps most importantly, the Lombards got involved in political arguments with the Pope,
and this was what caused the papacy to call upon the Franks for aid. The papacy was a prize
every Medieval magnate wanted to possess. But the popes knew that they could not survive long
if they were the creators of one king or emperor. The Moslems had conveniently removed the
authority of the Eastern Roman emperor from Italy (with a little help from the Lombards), but
someone was needed to keep the Germans in Italy (and elsewhere) from controlling the papacy.
For several centuries the protector of the papacy became the Franks (and later the French). Out
of all of this came a papacy that became an arbiter of Medieval Politics. While the papacy
controlled extensive lands in central Italy, the pope was never temporal power. The papacy
created a balance of power between the various German kings that provided the Church an
independence it would have never had if there were an effective Roman, or Holy Roman,
emperor.